"Gracious king, pardon--Those men are traitors--I will tell all their secrets--The Commonwealth is a red cloth--Well, I have you, worthy prince--Hold him!--Gracious king, this way, for there is treason!" Soroka rose on the bed and listened; but the sick man, when he had screamed once and a second time, fell asleep, and then woke and cried,-- "Olenka, Olenka, be not angry!" About midnight he grew perfectly calm and slept soundly. Soroka also began to slumber; but soon a gentle knocking at the door of the cabin roused him. The watchful soldier opened his eyes at once, and springing to his feet went out. "But what is the matter?" asked he. "Sergeant, the pitch-maker has escaped." "A hundred devils! he'll bring robbers to us right away." "Who was watching him?" "Biloüs." "I went with him to water our horses," said Biloüs, explaining. "I ordered him to draw the water, and held the horses myself." "And what? Did he jump into the well?" "No, Sergeant, but between the logs, of which there are many near the well, and into the stump-holes. I let the horses go; for though they scattered there are others here, and sprang after him, but I fell into the first hole. It was night,--dark; the scoundrel knows the place, and ran away. May the pest strike him!" "He will bring those devils here to us,--he'll bring them. May the thunderbolts split him!" The sergeant stopped, but after a while said,-- "We will not lie down; we must watch till morning. Any moment a crowd may come." And giving an example to the others, he took his place on the threshold of the cabin with a musket in his hand. The soldiers sat near him talking in an undertone, listening sometimes to learn if in the night sounds of the pine-woods the tramp and snort of coming horses could reach them. It was a moonlight night, and calm, but noisy. In the forest depths life was seething. It was the season of mating; therefore the wilderness thundered with terrible bellowing of stags. These sounds, short, hoarse, full of anger and rage, were heard round about in all parts of the forest, distant and near,--sometimes right there, as if a hundred yards from the cabin. "If men come, they will bellow too, to mislead us," said Biloüs. "Eh! they will not come to-night. Before the pitch-maker finds them 'twill be day," said the other soldiers. "In the daytime, Sergeant, it would be well to examine the cabin and dig under the walls; for if robbers dwell here there must be treasures." "The best treasures are in that stable," said Soroka, pointing with his finger to the shed. "But we'll take them?" "Ye are fools! there is no way out,--nothing but swamps all around." "But we came in." "God guided us. A living soul cannot come here or leave here without knowing the road." "We will find it in the daytime." "We shall not find it, for tracks are made everywhere purposely, and the trails are misleading. It was not right to let the man go."